Those Left Behind
by Staacey
Summary: Isabelle Ward was on flight to Paris for interview to work for the U.N. but wakes up back in Chicago after the Rapture. Along with her son she must navigate the Post-Rapture world and eventually how to deal with her new boss the Antichrist himself.
1. Chapter 1

First off, I do not own the Left Behind Series that belongs to the wonderful minds of Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Now this is my first foray into fan fiction, and I am more than happy to take constructive criticism and I will ignore all flames. I also want to note that I am not a Bible scholar like Mr. LaHaye, and I can and likely will make mistakes concerning the Bible and I will do my best to avoid any errors in my writings. If you see any Biblical errors, please inform on it and I will do my best to correct it. This is also a rewrite of a fanfic I had started years ago.

**Those Left Behind**

**LANDING**

_I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed —in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."1 Corinthians 15:50-54_

"Ladies and gentlemen" said a man's voice that was a bit staticky over the loudspeaker. "I want to thank you again for your cooperation today. We've been asked to put down on the only runway that will take this size plane and then to taxi to an open area about two miles from the terminal. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you use our inflatable emergency chutes, because we will not be able to hook up to ant gateways. If you are unable to walk to the terminal. Please stay with the plane, and we will send someone back for you."

Isabelle shook her head trying to escape the last traces of sleep the still gripped her. She pulled off her sleeping mask and glanced around the plane's cabin taking in the panicked looks of her fellow passengers as she felt the plane begin to make its decent. She had taken medication to make sure she slept through the nearly nine-hour flight and it seems she had slept through something.

"Excuse me, sir," She said to man across the aisle who looked vaguely. "What is going on?"

The man glanced at her his eyebrow raising slightly in surprise. "It seems like people have disappeared and vanished."

Isabelle frowned at the man not appreciating him making a joke at her question. If they were having engine trouble or had to make an emergency landing because for some form of emergency, it was not time for jokes.

"Sorry, I asked." She said frowning." But you do not need to make jokes like that during an emergency just for kicks."

The man frowned back at her.

"It's no joke," he said waving his hand across the plane. "Look around you. People are missing in this plane and according to the piolet it has happened across the world."

Isabella stood up slightly looking around the plane. She could see faces full of fear and grief and there were empty seats across the plane with only what appeared to be clothing left in them. She saw the woman behind who she had helped place her luggage because she had her hands full with two young children holding an empty blanket as she cried silently.

She looked over at the man again.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled in shock. "I had no idea. Has there been any news on what happened?"

The man shook his head.

"The piolet has been giving us updates but so far no one knows the case."

She nodded to him her mind going over possibilities. She had not heard of any country having any technology that could cause people to dematerialize. There wasn't any working scientific theory on how it could possibly happen. The thought that is could possibly be aliens briefly went through her mind. She thought it had a greater possibility of being caused some experiment gone wrong at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva than the possibility of it being aliens. Or maybe just a natural phenomenon like what happened in Israel last year.

Thinking of Israel, she glanced over at the man suddenly remembering where she had met him before.

"Williams, right?" she said glancing at him. "I met you last year in Israel when you interviewed Rosenzweig. I was the lead on his security team."

Before he could reply there was a slight bit of turbulence and it roughly bounced Isabelle out of her seat. She quickly got back into her seat buckling herself back up as she waited for the plane to land forgetting about her conversation with Williams the writer across the aisle.

As soon as she felt the plane land, she pulled out her cellphone turning it on and was disappointed to see that she had no service. She slid it into her pocket so she could easily reach it if her husband David attempted to call her. He would call her she told herself. He would be fine and so would their son and twin daughters. David would be out in pasture rounding up sheep about now and moving them to a new pasture and the kids would all be at school.

When the plane came to a stop, she quickly grabbed her assault pack slinging it over her shoulders and her hot pink carry on luggage. She saw the man Williams slide down the inflatable slide and land not so gracefully at the bottom. When it was her turn, she tossed her shoes and pink luggage down and then jumped down herself. She felt the air rush past her face as she slid down before her feet hit the concrete and she quickly stood up and gathered her belongings.

Once she had her shoes back on, she did not hesitate to start off to the indicated direction of the main airport. After checking her phone for the third time and feeling an uneasy feeling in her stomach she decided to jog the rest of the way in hopes that once she reached the airport terminal, she would be able to get cell service.

When she arrived at the terminal sweaty from her run it was to only to discover that she still did not have cell service. She decided to instead go and find her car and start to drive home. In the Army she was taught to keep moving forward because if you stopped that was the end.

As she walked, she glanced up at the televisions across the airport and stopped dead as she saw a woman in the midst of labor go from full term to a nearly flat stomach in the blink of an eye. The doctor did not deliver a baby only the empty placenta. Isabelle placed her hand over her own stomach briefly recalling the births of her own children and felt sickening fear take grip of her. She needed to get home to her own children.

She picked up her speed navigating towards the garage area where she had left her car. When she got there she saw where someone had moved around some of the vehicles where people had disappeared and was happy to see that her vehicle was not only undamaged in the initial chaos but was not blocked in like many of the cars she had passed were. She placed her phone on the clip above the radio so she could easily see if she had signal.

As she pulled onto Interstate 249, she was glad she had driven this route enough times that she did not need her GPS as it had failed her along with her cellphone. It had been years since she had not had the world at her fingertips with her cellphone she reflected. Until it was useless, she had not realized how dependent she had become of it.

She was listening to the radio and the news was only about the disappearances. Some countries had higher losses than others, but every country had loss every child under the age of nine. Isabelle's hand shook as she recalled that her twin daughters had just turned ten last month.

When her phone rang, she jumped in surprise. She quickly slid the bar across the screen to answer it.

"Mom," said the panicked voice of her son Nathaniel, "Dad and the girls are missing!"

"Nate what are you talking about?" Isabelle asked her son. She could feel her stomach twisting in knots and was beginning to panic.

"I woke up late for school and went to go see why Dad never woke me up. When I went into your bedroom he wasn't there, and his car is still here. I checked Hope and Faith's room, but they were not there." He explained." Mom I have looked everywhere, and they are not here! I turned the T.V. on and, Mom, people are missing all over the world!"

By then Isabelle could hear her son's choking sobs as he explained what had happened

"Nate," Isabelle said her voice coming out as a hoarse croak," Everything is going to be ok. I am driving home right now. We will figure out everything once I get there.

"But, Mom, I already know what happened to them." Nathaniel told her.

"What do you mean?"

"Dad has been trying to tell me about it and I just did not listen to him." He told his mother. "It is the Rapture. God has taken His church and left all the unbelievers here. Mom, we have been left behind!"


	2. Chapter 2

_promise I do not own the Left Behind series and I have not or will not make a single copper penny for writing it. The inspiration for this chapter comes from Jeremy Camp's song "There Will Be a Day."_

**Those Left Behind**

**There Will Be a Day**

_God said to Moses, "I am who I am." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Exodus 3:14_

Nathaniel rolled over trying to hide his face from the early morning sun. Nathaniel, or Nate, as most of his friends liked to call him, was just fifteen years old and shorter than most boys his age. He had unfortunately inherited his mother's height along with her red hair. All of a sudden, Nate sat straight up and began rummaging around on his desk for his glasses, groaning to himself. He hated to sleep in until the sun was shining through his window. It always seemed to start the day off on the wrong foot. As soon as he had placed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, he spotted his clock and saw the red lights that read 8 am. He was late for school and his mom was going to kill him if she found out. Good thing for him, she was out of town.

Nate quickly rolled out of bed and hurriedly put on his clothing for school and made his bed._ Why didn't Dad wake me up,_ he wondered to himself as he brushed his teeth. Still brushing his teeth, he walked to his parents' bedroom and knocked on the closed door.

"Hey Dad, are awake?" He asked.

The only response he received was silence from the room. Being in a bit of a hurry, he pushed the door open and peered into the room. He saw his Dad's Bible laying on his nightstand and an unmade bed._ That is odd,_ Nate thought to himself,_ Dad always makes the bed as soon as he gets up_. Starting to wonder what was going on, Nate decided to go see if his younger sisters were up yet.

When he walked into his seven soon to be eight-year-old twin sisters, Faith and Hope's room, he noticed that they also did not make up their beds. Rolling his eyes at the twins' forgetfulness he decided to make their beds so they would not get into trouble over it. As he pulled back the blanket on Hope's bed and he noticed her favorite night gown with the Disney princesses laying under the blanket.

_Why would she leave her night gown under the sheets and not in the laundry?_ Nate wondered to himself.

Nate just shrugged it off tossing the night gown into the twins' clothes hamper. When he moved to Faith's bed, he found the same thing, a night gown under the sheets. As he finished making the bed, he could not help but wonder what his sisters were up to and if this was some kind of new game.

When he was finished making the twins' beds, he decided to continue looking around the house for his family. As he checked all the rooms, he could feel something heavy settle into the bottom of his stomach. Starting to think that his Dad may have gone out with the sheep and just forgotten about waking him, he peeked outside and saw his father's truck sitting in the same spot it had been when his dad had parked it the night before. He also noticed the four-wheelers were parked in the garage and had not been moved. Thinking his Dad may be gone for a while, he decided to grab a bowl of cereal and wait for them to come back.

He decided to sit in the living room and watch television while he waited. When he flipped the television on, there was an emergency broadcast on every single channel.

"As of this time," said the newscaster on the television," We do not know what has caused the millions of disappearances around the world. At this time no government or terrorist organization is taking credit for the vanishings."

Nate dropped the spoon that was heading to his mouth. What was this man talking about? He hurriedly turned the volume up, not wanting to miss a single word the newscaster had to say.

"It appears," the man on the television continued. "That during the early hours of the morning, millions disappeared without a trace, leaving only the things they were wearing at the time behind. It appears that every nation in the world was affected by the disappearances. Also, it seems every child under the age of nine is among the missing."

Nate felt his bowl slip off his lap onto the floor, spilling all of its contents on to the carpet. He stood up and ran to his parent's room and pulling back the sheets he saw his father's pajama pants and wedding band lying beside the pillow. Not wanting to think that his family had disappeared during the night, he ran from room to room, rechecking for any clue that his family was still home. He ran outside hoping against all odds that his Dad would be there.

"Dad, Hope, Faith where are you?" He screamed at the top of his lungs. "This isn't funny at all! Stop it, please!"

The only answer to his now frantic pleas was the birds chirping away in the trees.

Dejectedly, Nate walked back into the house and turned the television back on, trying to gather anymore information he could. As he watched the news, it seemed the same story was playing over and over again. Everyone was saying the same thing, friends and family had disappeared in the blink of an eye all over the globe.

As he watched, a newscaster was interviewing a woman who had been in labor when the disappearances had occurred, and her husband had filmed it. Nate watched in horrified fascination as he saw the woman's belly go from very pregnant to flat in the space of a heartbeat. It appeared that even the unborn were not safe from disappearing into thin air.

Nate sat on the sofa trying to absorb all that had happened. Who had ever heard of millions disappearing in the blink of an eye? Then it hit him with the force of a ton of bricks crashing down from the sky, his Dad had been talking about something like this from his church group. Just the night before when his Dad had forced him to go to church with him, he recalled hearing about something called a Rapture. It was something about God taking all of the good people to Heaven before He did something else.

He stood up and ran as fast as he could to his Father's study, pausing only long enough to grab the Bible off of his Father's nightstand. Nate grabbed several of the Bible study pamphlets from his Father's drawer and began to flip through them. He came across one titled "The Signs of the Coming Rapture". Nate flipped open the cover and began to read.

_In 1949,when Israel was given back to the Jews, Jewish people from all four corners of the world returned to their homeland as it had been foretold in the Bible.(__**Thus says the Lord God, "Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own Land"-Ezekiel 37:21**__). That was one of the first signs that we were given by God that we should prepare. Last year, God showed us another sign of His soon to be coming when Russia led an attack on Israel along with many of the nations of the Middle East. Despite Russia's heavy artillery and fire power, God protected Israel. God sent fire from the skies to destroy the enemy planes before they could complete their attack! The signs are here and soon God will take up His church to save them from the Great Tribulation._

_If you read 1 Corinthians 15:50-54, it tells you about how Jesus will take up all of His believers in one glorious moment. In a twinkling of an eye, all believers in Christ will be taken, leaving nothing behind. Can you imagine one moment being here on this earth in the flesh of man and the next standing before God Himself! I will tell you, give your life to God today because when He comes for His church, you do not want to face the Tribulations that come next._

Nathaniel sucked in a deep breath of shock. His Dad had tried to tell him the truth about God but he wouldn't listen to him. Again, it had just been the night before when his father had dragged him to another one of his church Revival meetings, and all he did was sit in a back pew as far away from his father and twin sisters as possible. While the preacher Aiden Black had talked about God and His grace, Nate was busy texting his friends and playing Angry Birds on his cellphone. What a little idiot he had been the day before.

Nate picked up his Dad's Bible, thumbing through the pages thinking that if only he had listened to his Dad instead of ignoring him, he would still be with his Dad and sisters. While he was staring dazed at the Bible, he noticed a slip of paper and pulled it out. On the top of it in bold lettering were the words "Prayer Request". Wanting to know what his Dad asked God for, he read on.

_Dear Heavenly Father, you have blessed me beyond measure with a loving wife and three beautiful children. The only thing I ask is that you show me how to be a better husband to my beautiful wife and a better father to my son and daughters. Please Lord, give me the strength and perseverance to lead my family into your embrace. I know that as I write this my wife and son have not accepted you and your son Jesus as their savior, please Lord have patience with them. I wish for nothing more in this world then for my family to be saved and to know your grace. I know that they will come to love you as much as I do if they are just given a chance. Thank you, Lord God, for everything that you do for me._

Nathaniel looked at the letter in his hand in disbelief. He had always known his father loved him, but never realized that he prayed for him and even asked God to save him. He gently caressed the letter staring at it and wondering if his mother knew that his dad was praying for her.

His Mother was in heading overseas right now for a job interview. How could he forget that? Nate raced to the kitchen and with trembling hands began to dial his mother's cellphone. By the time he heard the phone ring for the third time, he felt a sickening twist in his gut. Could his Mother have been taken too?

When he heard the phone stop ringing an someone answer he felt relief flood through his body.

"Mom," Nathaniel said, his panicked voice catching in his throat. "Dad and the girls are missing!"

"What are you talking about?" His mother snapped at him.

"I woke up late for school and went to go see why Dad never woke me up. When I went into your bedroom, he wasn't there, and his car was still here. I checked Hope and Faith's room, but they were not there." He explained to his mother. "Mom, I have looked everywhere, and they are not here! I turned the T.V. on and, Mom, people are missing all over the world!"

By the time Nate had finished his explanation he had tears running down his face and his voice had become ragged. His dad and sisters were gone, taken up by what he thought was the Rapture and all he had left was his mother. He felt torn on whether he should be grateful she was still here or scared that she had not been taken. He knew she was not all about church like his father and was always finding reasons not to go with his dad to church and Nate had done the same.

"Mom I saw it all on the television," Nathaniel began to explain. "During the night people disappeared all over the world leaving nothing but their clothing behind. Every child under the age of nine is missing, even unborn babies have disappeared! Adults were taken too! It has happened in every country in the world!"

"Nate," Mariam said her voice coming out as a hoarse croak. "Everything is going to be ok. I am driving home right now. We will figure out everything once I get there.

"But Mom, I already know what happened to them." Nathaniel tried to explain to his mother.

"What do you mean?" Came the sharp reply on the other end of the phone.

"Dad has been trying to tell me about it and I just did not listen to him." He told his mother. "It is the Rapture. God has taken His church and left all of the unbelievers here. Mom we have been left behind!"

"What nonsense," Exclaimed Isabelle.

"Mom, Dad was trying to tell me just a few days ago about it and his church was talking about it last night." Nate tried to reason with his mother." He also has some pamphlets and books about it in his study."

"Nate, honey, let's not talk about this right now," Nate could hear his mother take a couple of deep calming breaths before she continued. "I am going to try and find out some more information about what is going on. I want you to stay home and keep the phone by you. I am going to get home as quickly as possible and we will find out what is going on together. Now I need to concentrate on driving there so I need to cut this short."

"Mom, I love you, please be careful," He whispered into the phone.

"Nate everything will be ok," Came the hoarse reply from Isabell. "I will get home in about seven hours. Just hold on and I will be there. I love you son and we will get through whatever this is, I promise you."

As Nate hung up the phone with his mom, he could not help but feel that he should have told her more about what he had read in his father's study, but he had no idea where to start. If God had taken up His church, did that mean that he was damned for all eternity? What was supposed to happen to those who were left? Could they even have the salvation from sin that his father was always talking to him about? Or was it already too late?

Nate walked to his father's office wanting to look around and see if maybe he left anything that could help explain what was going on. As he flipped through his Dad's books and paperwork, he kept coming across pamphlets with the name Mount Zion Church in a swirling gold script with a phone number underneath it. Could anyone else from the church have been left behind and would they have any idea what would happen next?

Nathaniel picked up the phone and began to dial the number, wondering if anyone would pick up on the other end. He felt a bit foolish calling a church when God had already taken all of His church. He counted each ring, hoping against all odds that someone would pick up on the other end. On the seventh ring he heard the click of the answering machine.

"This is Mount Zion Church," said the deep voice of Aiden Black. "We are unable to make it to the phone at..."

The answering machine suddenly clicked off and a different voice replaced it "Hello. Who is this? Were you left behind too?"

"Yes," Nate replied.

"Do you know what happens now?" the voice on the other end asked.

"I was hoping someone at the church would know. That is why I called." Nate said, starting to wonder if this was a good idea. "By the way, who are you?"

"I am Tom Black my Dad is...was the pastor of this church before yesterday. Who are you?" was the reply from the other end of the phone.

Nathaniel vaguely remembered a young man he had seen with Pastor Aiden when he had gone with church with his father. The only reason he really remembered the guy was that he did not fit into the Pastor's cookie cutter family with his long shaggy black hair, eye liner and over the top gothic look. The few times Nate had seen the other boy he was dressed in black, looking sullen and unhappy to be in the church. He also remembered overhearing a conversation a few months ago between his Dad and Aiden Black. It seemed that Tom was brought home by the police. He was caught smoking pot at a park close to his home. This was not the first incident Tom had with the law. The year before he had gotten into trouble for vandalism if Nathaniel recalled correctly.

"I'm Nate O'Neil. My Dad attended Mount Zion and when I woke up this morning, he and my little sisters were gone, just like all of the other people. I think it was God who took them." He could not believe he said all that to a complete stranger. Telling his mom what he had thought had happened to his family was one thing, but to tell someone who he didn't know was one of the boldest things he had ever done.

"Yeah, my family is gone too. I am the only one left," Tom whispered into the phone. "My parents, my brothers, sister, grandparents, aunts and all of my cousins."

"Do you have a place to stay?" He asked the other boy feeling sorry for his predicament. Nate now appreciated his mom even more because at least he still had someone.

"I have the house behind the church my family lives…. lived in but it is very empty now." Tom explained.

"Would you like to come and stay with my mom and me?" He asked. He hoped that his mother would not mind him inviting the other boy there without talking to her first. He just felt it was the right thing to do. After all if his mother had been taken, what would he have done without her?

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, only broken up by the sound of Tom taking a few shaky deep breaths. Nate began to wonder if he had offended or upset the other boy somehow and began to form an apology to him for being so forward.

"You would really do that for me?" Tom questioned him. "I have never had anyone try to help me before. Well except my own family, but I think they are supposed to do that."

"We are not all that different now, "Nate replied. "We have both missed the single greatest event in the history of man."

"Yeah I guess you are right," Was all Tom said in return.

"Why don't you get your stuff packed up and I will drive my Dad's truck into town and pick you up. I have my drivers permit and I have a feeling not many people will care if I am driving without an adult today of all days." Nate told the other boy.

"Umm ok, that sounds good to me. How long do you think it will take you to get here?" said Tom.

"It shouldn't take me more than twenty minutes or so to get there. My Dad keeps a bunch of empty boxes in the storage shed. I'll bring some of them so you can box anything you want to take with you into them." Nate paused a moment before going on. "Could you do one thing for me?"

"I guess so. What do you want?" Came the leery reply.

"Could you check to see if your parents had any books about the what is going on?" Nate asked.

"Yeah that will be no problem. I thought you were going to ask for money or something." Tom said with a nervous laugh.

"No, I just want to help you." Nate told the other boy. He did recall seeing something about mass burglaries since the disappearances. "Though you may want to hide or take with you any valuables in the house. There have been quite a few break-ins since people have discovered people were missing. "

"I will do that. I am going to let you go so I can start packing." Tom told him.

"Ok I will be at the church soon as I can." Nate said before hanging up the phone.

Nate recalled his mother telling him to stay home but decided that it would be fine to go pick up Tom as long as he did not take too long. He decided to send a text message to his mom telling her about their new guest. He then headed out to the storage shed and grabbed a bunch of boxes and loaded them into his dad's truck. Today was going to be the hardest day of his life and he had a feeling that things would not be getting any better.


End file.
